Cauterized
by Nyctale
Summary: Alone in the cold streets of Tokyo, Inori clutches desperately onto the pieces of a broken man. (Phase 18, Shu/Inori)


She bent down and peered through the tiny doorway that led a minuscule capsule room with a thin old futon serving as a bed. Inori had inspected many other capsules and they were inhabitable, consumed by Virus crystals. Satisfied with with she found, Inori threw down her bag of provision in the capsule's corner, stood up and walked to the block apartment's entrance. There she found Shu, where she had left him while she searched for a place to spend the night.

He hadn't moved in a bit.

He was still seated, slouched in the corner, head lolling to his chest...Still bloody, dirty and pale from blood loss. The gun she had given him to defend himself , in case a thug found them, was held limply in his hand and he watched it through his half-lidded eyes intently...very intently.

He flinched when Inori's hand fell on his shoulder. Despite his reaction to her touch, he did not aknowledge her any further. She tried to gaze into his tired eyes but his locks shielded his face.

"Shu..."

He didn't respond, she haven't heard a single word escape his lips since...

_Him, laying in a pool of crimson ..._

She shook her head clearing her head.

Seeing him so broken just tear her heart open. She never would have thought her feelings could feel like monsters claws ripping her heart...

Crouching in front of him, Inori pocketed his gun, she embraced him, snaking her arms under his armpits and braced herself to lift him. She flinched and cringed as he wailed in pain and weakly fought against her grip. Inori did her best to shush him, but he heard nothing of it, the agony erupting from his right arm was taking all over his senses. The shuffle and half dragging of Shu to their new bedroom was long and difficult. His cries had eventually became silent, though not for the reason she hoped: His skin has never been so pale and clammy as it was now. His eyes swam in dizziness and his head collapsed on her shoulder.

Inori could finally breathe again when she laid Shu down on the futon and joined his side, closing the screen that served as a door after her.

Inori observed him quietly and felt her heart shatter even more.

He stared at the low ceiling, motionless except the rises of his chest, eyes wide, unseeing and full of pain. What kind of pain? She wasn't sure...she hoped it was only physical pain...

It wasn't the case. She knew.

But on a better note, colour returned to his face as blood slowly flowed back to his head.

She rummaged into her bag, pulled out cotton wad and a bottle of alcohol. Inori removed his coat, making sure the blood crusted sleeve did not press into his wound. under the bandages, she found an dreadful sight: crispy, burnt mass of flesh, oddly shaped and the limb stopped a few centimeters under the elbow... It was still better than what it had looked like before: wet, gushing crimson and bones poking out the flesh.

When Inori had escaped from the what-could-have-been a tragedy scene, carrying Shu along, she had to stop the haemorrhage and close the wound quickly. She did not have needles and thread so she used a far more gruesome method: cauterization. Finding some matches and a knife in a desolated kitchen, she stoked a fire, heated the knife till she had a glowing red blade...

Inori would've loved to forget his screams...

Inori made sure that her cotton was correctly soaked in alcohol by tapping it with her finger. Shu's mouth gaped open in silent scream when the drenched cotton wad touch his stump. Inori put all her weight on his chest and held his arm with her left hand while she cared to his wound with her right.

"Shhh...It's almost over."

She threw away the cotton, redressed his wound and drew out a cloth and a water can. Shu flinched at the sight of the cloth, and shivered when a wet cloth scrubbed his face, dislodging the dried blood from his skin. Shu averted his gaze as she cleaned him.

"Why did you do this?"

His voice was barely above a whisper, weak, but rough like sandpaper. Inori tried to catch his line of sight but he still avoided her, looking at the far wall.

"_Nani_?...Shu"

" Back there...T-they were going to shoot me down...Why did you...?

This had been the longest sentence he had uttered since this morning. His voice was gritty, barely above a whisper and full of self-loathing.

She brought a hand to his clean cheek, turned his face towards her, but still no eye meeting. Shu closed his watery eyes.

"...Forget it..."

Shu turned his back to her, cradling his right upper arm against his chest and Inori remained there, in silence, watching the back of his head.

Something broke within her and she thought she could hear him shatter and pieces fall...

Inori snuggled closer to him, embracing him from behind, her arms around his chest, a hand on his heart and forehead pressed against his shoulder blade. She felt him stiffened under her touch and then quiver.

She embraced his sob-racked frame till the next dawn, refusing to let him go. She refused to let him go, fearing she would feel him fall to pieces between her fingers, feel him crack like a Virus crystal, blown away with the wind, leaving nothing behind. So she held onto his broken pieces, hoping that the strange warmth she felt for him, deep in her chest, would wield and cauterize his wounded soul.


End file.
